COOS BAY — Southwestern Oregon Community College is expecting a record number of students this fall, but tuition dollars aren’t coming soon enough.

At an emergency meeting Thursday, the Board of Education approved a resolution allowing the college to borrow as much as $1.5 million over the next 60 days to ensure the college can pay employees and its bills.

Mike Ionno, the interim chief fiscal officer, said the funds are needed to smooth out the college’s cash balances. Without the infusion of capital, the college was expecting to end the month with a cash balance of $115,000. Ionno said this was due to the lack of tuition payments at the start of fall term and the state’s appropriation system, which provides money every three months, whereas the college must pay its bills every month.

“The immediate need is really just a timing issue,” he said.

College officials aren’t entirely sure why the cash flow is lower than in years past. In her report to the board, President Judith Hansen said previous years had cash balances that included funds for capital projects under construction.

“This likely gave the impression that working capital available for operations was greater than it was in reality,” she wrote.

Ionno said this is a possible explanation, though since he only started working at Southwestern last week, he doesn’t know the college’s history well enough to give a definite answer.

“I’m not in a position to characterize the past, only what you have today,”  he said.

In response to a question from board member Harry Abel, Ionno agreed the resolution is only a short-term fix and the college will need to re-open budget talks.

“You need to have a little tighter budget,” he said.

In the meantime, Hansen has instituted a number of policies to reduce spending. These include curtailing travel outside the Northwest, postponing new hires and reviewing office procedures for additional ways to save money.

Chairman Lonny Anderson said the budget committee would reconvene in November to revisit the budget.

“We need to get a more realistic picture for this year to set us up for next year’s budget period,” he said.

Hansen also said the college should consider creating an invested reserve for coming years to avoid credit crunches.

The board voted unanimously in favor of the resolution, though several members expressed disappointment at the turn of events.

Abel said he was upset that the board got only two days notice of the special meeting and received the wording of the resolution hours beforehand. He also said he was receiving calls from contractors telling him they hadn’t been paid by the college in a timely manner.

“I feel I’m getting a bit blackmailed into this,” he said.

“I’m going to vote in favor of this resolution, but I’m not happy at all at this.”

Rick Osborn, director of communications at the college, confirmed the college hadn’t been paying all of its bills on time, but did not offer any specifics.

“Due to cash flow problems, we’ve been having difficulty with that, but by Monday that will be cleared up,” he said.

There also was uncertainty about how the need to tweak the budget would affect students and faculty. Hansen said services would not be affected, though some board members were less certain.

“I think it’s obvious there is a huge hole in this budget. Student services will suffer. I’m very disappointed about this,” said David Bridgham.

The board’s action will take effect almost immediately.

Vice President Sheldon Meyer said he would take the resolution to Umpqua Bank this morning, starting the 60-day borrowing window.

Ionno said the college could pay as much as $10,000 in interest over the borrowing period.

Ionno is a certified public accountant of Datatel, the company that provides the college’s computer system for student records and financing.

He was brought in because of his experience, said Osborn, noting that Ionno has worked with about 150 colleges’ financial records. Osborn said Ionno is being paid $250 an hour.

Hansen said a more thorough discussion of the financial analysis will be presented at the board’s October retreat, which is scheduled for the first weekend of the month, in Coos Bay.

At that meeting, Hansen said the staff will have compiled a 10-year history of where the Curry Campus budget funds have been kept.